Amusingly I started getting noticeably vascular the morning after I completely fisted my diet with 6000 calories of cake and brazed pork. I guess a cheat day every now and then isn't the end of the world.

Ahaha "fisted my diet".

I've got nothing to add here, really other than work and school are killing my gym drive.

I've just gotten back into the gym swing and I love it. New job, new gym routine \m/
I've always been a really skinny guy, but a giant friend of mine needed a lifting buddy, so I figured that was my shot to finally bulk up. (25 years of failing at putting on weight is pretty demoralizing). So I was in that routine for a few months, but a new job messed up my life for months on end, but now I'm back to it.
As someone trying to put on weight, I'm doing high weights, low reps, and I ignore all definition. I try to concentrate on the larger muscle groups, and my two babies are the deadlift and the strongman log. Working out doesn't get any bigger than those two.
When all is said and done though, I won't have changed much. Dieting is always my problem: I just don't take in enough carbs, protein, and calories to gain any mass. I try picking foods that I can pack away and can pack on the weight, but my appetite has just always sucked.

For those of us hunting down every calorie you can find, what do you like to eat? How often and how much do you eat? I'd love to hear from anyone who's had problems with appetite in the past

good pic

The miracle of carb loading

New powerlifting program going great so far. Not even a month in and I can already notice improvements. Think I've built some good muscle, now I only have to lose maybe 20lbs to look really good. Did my first run in a while yesterday, had to take a lot of breaks, but still did a good 45 minutes.


A bit late, but as for the which day to do deadlift debate, I would definitely say back day. It obviously works legs, especially hamstrings, but it is still the classic compound movement for working out your back. Doing deadlifts first and then other back movements after is the only way I've ever done back day. I also think squatting and deadlifting in the same day might not be the best idea. I used to just do a two day split the first year I got into this, but eventually whatever big compound lift I did second I just wouldn't have as much energy to do and wouldn't perform very well.

I dunno, I squat every gym day and I don't mind deadlifting after squatting at all, but that's probably because of the exercise order. Squats are whatever, but after that I do overhead press which I just hate and feel super weak on, so I like to do deadlifts after that because it's my biggest lift of course and just feels good to smash out big reps after struggling with tiny weights for OHP.

Supplementing your meals with fats helps to add easy calories. Just drench everything in olive oil.

I went to buy more workout pants yesterday since my old pair is from like 2008. All of the pants now (at least the quality pairs) have cuffed elastic ankles. What is that about? I have size 13 shoes so there is no way for me to wear something like that and not look like a goon. I bought a pair but I hope I don't regret it.

Hahahaha man I feel you on the workout pants and huge shoes. I'm also a 13 but shorter than you so if it helps at all know that I look like even more of a goon. I never wear the workout pants except for running outdoors though. Shorts for me even through the winter in the gym.

so broke right now I can barely afford to eat, never mind get mad protein intake. hoping it means I trim up for summer. my abs are severely lacking right now

I've been deadlifting what the girls lift for a couple weeks now, and deadlifted 200lb today (only a few reps). I later find out another one of them, one of the smallest of them, did 265 at a competition the other day. not sure what's a reasonable timeframe for myself to work up to that (then again, it was probably a 1-rep max, right? so, maybe not too long), but it seems like a fairly modest goal. I'm not sure if fatigue in my quads from cycling is holding me back, they were a bit shaky today, I would've thought that shouldn't play much of a role, but I guess they still have to stabilize?

d'you guys have a preference for stance (direction and spacing/distance)? my hamstrings have gotten really tight after not doing stretches for about six months, so I'm not sure what's the best to be doing.

Man, deadlifting is easy. You're already jacked as fuck dude, just start with like 3x5s of 80kg a couple times a week and slap on another 5kg each workout. I took my deadlift from 40kg to 140kg for reps while also cutting a ton of body fat and sometimes really struggling with other lifts. I'm pretty confident in being able to pull 400lbs next year.

I just follow Alan Thrall's form advice on deadlifts. Feet shoulder width apart, bar directly over about the center of your foot (so an inch or two in front of your shins?) and let your arms hang limp at your sides. Just drop down all sloppy and limp and grip the bar where your arms naturally hang. I usually do double overhand grip on the first set, then mixed grip on the second two, switching the mix between the second and third sets. Anyway once you're holding the bar, that's when you really put yourself in the correct position. Try to minimize/eliminate back rounding and get down so that your shins are touching the bar. Pull the slack out of the bar so that you're pulling it up off the floor instead of jerking it up. Try to lock out your knees and hips at the same moment.

The biggest form issue I'd been working on is really trying to lower the bar back down with nice controlled form. Nice steady thigh-slide without banging my kneecaps and all that. It was improving for sure.

I'm with you up to that point.
maybe I'll take a form check video at the next session and you can let me know if things are activating in the wrong order, or if my scapula are too retracted or if the weights not on my heels enough or anything like that. I don't think I'm jerking it or anything. I move pretty slowly to try to be careful with my back, so I don't really get that snapping lock out with the legs/bar-to-hips

while we're on it. sometimes, like when I did 200 today, I did a rep and thought 'yea, naa, bit iffy on the lower back' and instead while I had the bar decided to make it a set of shrugs instead. what's good form for those? I found it is possible to not basically lift my dick up and down with the bar, which is what normally happens with the form that feels fine, but I wonder if that kind of leaning forward/having the bar further from my pelvis/having the shoulders rounded forward is dangerous. in the past I've only ever done them with dumbells way way lighter than this.

I have a preference for sumo stance, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone unless they're perfectly comfortable with conventional stance first.

The bar shouldn't be in front of your shins when you're deadlifting. It should be around the center of your foot, but it should still be against your shin. With knees bent in the starting position your shins should slant forward a bit so the bar can be over top the center of your foot and touching your shins at the same time. Lots of good advice on form here, I'd like to add make sure your muscles are tight as you do the lift and that you are bracing your core. For reps I prefer doing the touch and go method instead of stopping for a second every rep.

Also, a 265lbs deadlift should be easy to achieve with some consistent effort. Just make sure not to miss a week and to increase the weight incrementally and you should be there in no time. My goal for deadlifting is to hit 500lbs by April and I hope the RTS program will get me there (going great so far, doing deadlifts today - Edit: 385lbs 4x4 hell yeah).

Oh, I meant bar in front of your shins when you're just putting your feet in the right place, standing erect. When you squat down into position, yeah, bar should be over the center of your foot and shins should now be touching the bar. Sorry for any confusion there.

really? how?! I can consciously engage my glutes, though I don't tend to think about that. I engage my upperback and keep my lower back tight, and I get tension in my hamstrings, but at no point do I feel like my abdominals are involved, nor any way to make them work.
suppose I should go try it now, have a tiny barbell in the garage.



how many reps should I be able to get before I up the weight, and what's a fair rest in between reps? (like, I like to let it rest fully and then think again about engaging all the right muscles and having my back and balance right before I do my next rep, but I don't know if I should try to be quicker than that).

and what's the best warning sign that you should make a rep your last rep? (like, a guy at my gym does 485, and said when he tried 510 recently his back is rounding right from the start dangerously). what was stopping me mostly the other day was my fatigued thighs, it seemed like I wasn't stable enough for it to be smart to persist, even though the main muscles I was working were kinda fine, and the day after I felt absolutely no DOMS or tightness (did about 6 or 7 sets because I had the same problem the previous week of feeling I hadn't done enough)

To engage your core, basically just suck in your gut and keep it tight. Some powerlifters do a weird thing where they suck it in and then push it back out while still keeping it tight but this never made much sense to me. As for how many reps you're doing, well, it all depends on what rep scheme you choose to do. To get to a number like 265lbs honestly it doesn't matter what you go with as long as you're consistent, but I'd probably recommend doing 5x5s. Doing this got me up to around 375 before I started plateauing and had to switch to something else. Basically try adding 5lbs to the total each workout. Don't advance to the next five pounds until you hit all your reps at the weight you're at. As for rest between reps, I prefer to do the whole thing touch but if you're going to take a break try to make it as quick as possible. As for warning signs to end your set, if your form is starting to break down or if you feel like you can't do another rep with good form probably best to end the set.

so, if I can't get 5x5 on 95kg or 100kg tonight, I should keep doing 5x5 at 90kg for a while, or would 7x5 or 7x7 or something help me through the plateau? or start with 1x5 @100 and then 4x5 @90 when more tired?

edit: kept a record tonight.
2x3 @ 210
2x4 @ 210
1x2 @ 220
1x3 @ 220

my back felt a bit spasm'y when I slouched down just now. otherwise it went ok I guess.
should I just stay at 200?

Derigin and others also said this, I always meant to ask and always forget - for how long? Once or more than once? Should I do longer over time? Should I do more of it over time? I understand the principle, just need the details.

Nowadays I try to workout 3 times a week. When I was teen I used go to gym very often and regularly. Then it was somekind of on/off thing and then became a long break.

Okay, Erotetic has the IQ of a marsupial, anyone with the rudimentary mental capacity to answer a simple question?

3 times/week is enough for most, so long as the workouts are structured enough. I simply go every other day now, rotating between push/pull. This means every muscle group gets hit every 4 days, which is plenty of time to recover. Never injured, never plateauing.

I feel Erotetic is the most likely to get an injury in this thread. Back spasm? Dude wtf are you doing. Stop listening to bro science and just lift with proper form.

I have a shitty PC chair that promotes really bad posture. it just twitched a little. I've had a couple lumbar strains in the past, so I try not to push it too hard.

@drone, yeah basically suck your gut in during the whole set (but don't forget to breathe). The tighter in general you stay throughout the set, the better.

@Erotetic, yeah definitely wouldn't recommend increasing the weight until you get those back issues sorted out. Are you sure your form is ok? Remember to stretch, foam roll and drink lots of water.

Today... it's hard to see but my pec striations are back:

So, I took Diamhea's advice and began fasting in the morning. I only do it about every other day, but it's paid dividends so far. Usually I'll wake up hungry, but once I get to work I don't feel the urge to eat anymore.

I'm down to 191lbs. I haven't maintained sub-200lbs in probably about 15 years, so I'm pretty happy about that. Still need to lose some more fat, though. Once I get down a bit more I'll consider doing a proper bulk.

While my favorite is probably 4 days a week, with some light activity on at least some of the off days, I've found it interesting how variable this can be. Over the summer, I lifted every three days, but for longer periods of time each time. (Partially because the gym was far away, so fewer, longer workouts saved time.) I progressed steadily the whole time, getting from like 375 deadlift to 425 -- and improving on a bunch of less interesting lifts the numbers for which I can't remember now.

Goddamn tennis elbow, now I'm ruined for the rest of the week at least. I'm never touching reverse curls again.

Ok physically inclined people I need a bit of advice. I need some new shoulder stuff, I'm doing rotations/raises (whatever you want to call them) with 45lb plates (20kg). What can I do instead to go higher in weight?

^ Do shoulder presses with a (smith) machine. One of the only things I actually use smith machine for, because you waste a lot of energy getting a bar/dumbbells up into starting position. Shoulders are delicate and I don't think you really benefit from free weights very much as far as shoulder press is concerned. I wouldn't even attempt to press near the same weight as I can do on a machine when it comes to shoulders.

Also I just worked up to benching 100 pound dumbbells and they were a lot easier than I thought, could probably do at least a rep with 120s. Not bad considering I'm ~ 5'9" Felt like a beast

edit: Don't forget reverse flys, I like to do them with a cable from the ground or laying stomach down on an incline bench with DBs, I seem to be able to go really heavy like that.

My body is odd. I can only bench 45's max. Usually I stick to 35's and 40's. Yet I can easily do the same weight in my shoulders, depending on the exercise, if we're talking straight shoulder press with free weights I max out at 35lbs.

I don't really mind though, I'm not trying to get jacked by any means. I just want to get tone and drop to about 160lbs and be able to maintain that weight. Right now I maintain roughly 170lbs.

Reverse flys I do on a machine. Not really able to do those with enough weight to make any difference if I use free weights.

I agree that shoulders are delicate, but I think that is a reason to avoid the smith machines. The usual points all apply: free weights will help strength stabilizers so that things remain properly aligned. If you think you are using too much energy getting the weights into the starting position, I would suspect there is some imbalance. You probably shouldn't be regularly lifting something overhead if you're not able to get it into that position in the first place. Hell, a clean and press might be the best for overall shoulder work -- but that's just speculation.

Well you should always switch things up, I try to train all 3 parts of my shoulders fairly equally. I thought this article http://www.bodybuilding.com/content/tom-graffs-6-point-plan-for-massive-delts.html was decent on how to really build shoulders, especially section 2 that talks about heavy lifts.

I've achieved some good shoulder development indirectly. Rear delts get plenty of work from rowing/pulling movements. Front delts seem to require more isolation, so I'd throw in some front raises, but I do the machine shoulder press, not the smith machine. And that's pretty much the extent of my shoulder work. I can load heavy weight up and it isn't risky like with dumbbells and its in a more comfortable position to just lift it off instead of needing assistance.

I see a lot of gym rats that do the same handful of exercises. They live under the smith machine doing endless inclines, then do tons of standing reverse flyes but their shoulders are always unbalanced and way bigger in the front, and that results in that goofy walk some guys do with their arms pulled forward in front of them.

I'm laughing at myself... thinking I could maintain 6 days a week at the gym while taking 4 classes/2 labs at school and working. long story short: I'm starting to look a little too tubby.

you gotta work on your shakes/steadycam bro all your pics are so blurry, no need for a square on the face at this rate

just think how much more defined you'll look, instead of a blurry bulkiness

I would definitely avoid the smith machine. I'd recommend doing 5x5s of standing overhead press in the power rack for the big compound movement. Just be careful with form. Another one I really like doing as the main shoulder lift with a barbell is behind the neck, still a nice compound movement, but with a greater emphasis on the rear delts and hits the traps more. I'd only do this with a spotter, though.

For accessory lifts, the lateral raises are great for building the side of your shoulder (there's a machine that's also great for this but I forget what it's called). The front raise is also good for anterior delts, but make sure to do them for high reps (same with the lateral raises). For rear delts, rear delt flys with dumbells are good, but my personal favourite is face pulls - they're really fun. However, the best thing I ever did to develop big rear delts was work at a fence company, haha.

If you're doing stuff like standard bench press and incline bench, you're going to be hitting your shoulders, too (but mostly anterior delts).